Tag Archives: birding

Winding down with waders, 1

10 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by in nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

My Saturday was wonderful, a day’s birding along the Vale of Glamorgan coastline with my friend Della, checking clifftops for Choughs (unsuccessfully), stumbling over Stonechats along shorelines, scanning blue skies for Kestrels and Fulmar (the latter also unsuccessfully), hoping for (but not finding) the gold nuggets of Yellowhammers in hedgerows, nabbing a snippet of a Little owl in a crumbing barn roof.

221010 newton point birding

We wound down by watching waders settling in for the night at Newton Point. Arriving about two hours before high tide, we were able to find a couple of spots amongst the rocks where we could sit quietly, almost obscured from the birds, and watch their antics, listen to their chatter as the encroaching tide pushed the birds closer to us. It was the perfect end to a magical day (and I’ll share more about the birds tomorrow and Wednesday).

Old man, elegant ballerina

06 Thursday Oct 2022

Posted by in birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

I’ve had two close encounters with Grey herons in recent days, this first in a tree near the bridge between the lakes at Cosmeston Country Park (which is why I was at eye level with the bird).

221006 grey heron (1)

The second was along the canals in Cardiff, the bird this time standing on a log at water level. When I posted this photo on Twitter one of my followers commented that she thought the heron could ‘change from an old man to an elegant ballerina depending on stance’ – thank you, Jane. I think she was absolutely right – the bird above is the elegant ballerina, and below is the grumpy old man.

221006 grey heron (2)

Very late, very little

04 Tuesday Oct 2022

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I spotted this gorgeous little Coot chick (I call them Cootlets) during last Wednesday’s walk around Cardiff’s Roath Park Lake. It seemed very late in the breeding season for one so young and I couldn’t help but wonder whether it could survive. But it had the full attention of both its parents, so fingers crossed!

221004 cootlet

Great black-backed gulls

01 Saturday Oct 2022

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

It’s not unusual to see Great black-backed gulls on the water in Cardiff Bay or on the mudflats outside the Barrage at low tide, so these two adults weren’t a great surprise (though I’ve not seen one sitting on a pontoon before).

221001 great black-backed gulls (1)

What was a surprise though was seeing this juvenile. Initially, I wasn’t sure what it was – I figured it wasn’t a Herring or Lesser black-backed gull as it was larger, had different markings on body and wings, and a markedly different head shape. I thought perhaps it was a Yellow-legged gull until, most fortuitously, I bumped into a local gull expert who was able to identify the bird from looking at the photos on my camera. My first juvenile Great black-backed gull, I think.

221001 great black-backed gulls (2)

Beaky Starling

28 Wednesday Sep 2022

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I spotted these two Starlings, perched on a phone line, during a recent walk and, delighting in their beautiful speckled colouring and grateful that they stayed still, took a few photos. It was only when I reviewed the photos later at home that I noticed the juvenile bird, whose head feathers were still a dull brown, had a deformed beak. Fortunately for the bird, the deformity appeared slight so shouldn’t affect its ability to feed.

220928 beaky starling

Exciting news

24 Saturday Sep 2022

Posted by in birds

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

I’m finally able to share some exciting news with you all. Back in June I was utterly astonished and hugely delighted to be invited by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to contribute to their forthcoming publication Into the Red, ‘a collection of words and art inspired by Britain’s most vulnerable birds’. The book focuses on Britain’s red-listed birds, each one the subject of an original artwork and a piece of writing, prose or poetry, by 70 artists and 70 writers, some well-known, some not (like me). Profits from the sale of the book will be used to help these birds, to support the work being done to conserve and restore ailing bird populations.

220924 Into the Red

The official publication date is 4 October but you can see examples of the book’s interior pages right now, and pre-order your copies, by clicking on this link to the BTO website. I know times are tough for many people at the moment but, if you can, I urge you to buy the book so that, together, we can try to bring these vulnerable birds back from the edge of extinction. My sincere thanks!

Beach birding, 1

21 Wednesday Sep 2022

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Ringed plovers are not common on my local patch. In fact, the only place I see them is amongst the rocks on Sully beach, and that’s exactly where these 15 were perched, snoozing, preening, balancing on one spindly looking leg, when I walked along the beach last week.

A Wheatear (right, front) shares the limelight with these 2 Ringed plovers.

Though their scientific name, Charadrius hiaticula, is a bit of a tongue-twister, they have, according to my Fauna Britannica, some wonderful vernacular names: bull’s-eye (Ireland); dulwilly and grundling (Lancashire); ringlestone (Yorkshire); sand tripper (County Down); shell-turner (Sussex); and wideawake (Somerset), to list just a few.

220921 ringed plovers (2)